Sullivan to hold Alaska hearings on USFW’s proposed rule restricting hunting and fishing on public lands

February 13th, 2016

Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, will hold a public meeting on February 16, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center and on February 18, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Regional Office on “Federal Interactions with State Management of Fish and Wildlife.” The proposed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule would preempt state management of fish, wildlife, and their habitats on national wildlife refuges in Alaska.

If such a rule is allowed to stand, it will “fundamentally alter not only how national wildlife refuges and the fish, wildlife and habitats on them will be managed, but will also change the relationship of the service and the individual states from one of cooperation to subservience,” said Senator Sullivan.

Earlier this year, Senator Sullivan added an amendment to S. 659, the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2015, to stop the rule.

“In Alaska, conservation is not only a matter critical to our quality of life and customs and traditions,” Senator Sullivan said. “It is also a matter of social justice for our most remote communities who depend on nature’s bounty for food. Any time the federal government intrudes into our sovereign responsibility to sustain and manage fish and wildlife populations, it’s of great concern to Alaskans.”